How to Benefit
from After-School
Enrichment Classes
First Steps:
Preparing your
Toddler for School

Getting the Most out of a PTM
A Parentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Role in Career Choices
Proteins: The Building Blocks of our Body
Undergraduate Education: Destination Hong Kong
Board Games for the Whole Family

First Steps:

Toddler
for
School
Fact: Today, many children start school when they
are a mere 18 months old!
This is, of course, preschool, which has become
an extremely important part of a child’s schooling
experience. Typically, children will join preschool at
around two years of age, but many schools now also
admit one and a half-year olds into their ‘Play Groups’.
For most children, preschool is really the first time
that they are on their own, without their caregivers, in
an environment different from home. And it’s a huge
change that they need to be well prepared for.

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The sheer variety in career options available to todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s youth is mind-boggling!
From sound engineering to writing, cryptology to design; from maths-based
careers to one based on the life sciences â&#x20AC;&#x201C; we have covered all this and more
in past issues of the magazine, and will be bringing you many more! But this very
choice can be bewildering to parents who have grown up with more restricted
options, leaving both them and their children to confront a maze of decisions,
dilemmas and simply, lack of sufficient information.
ParentEdge spoke to Dr. Vikram Ramakrishnan, the CEO and
Founder of the Pathways Program (http://pathwaysprogram.in),
to ask him to light the way ahead and advice parents on how to
guide their children in their career choices.

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53

Xchange

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May - June 2013

Creativity

Xchange

and

Discipline:
Creativity and discipline. Are they
completely divergent concepts, or
complementary forces that need
to co-exist? Can creative people be
disciplined? Are all disciplined people
unimaginative and rigid?

Opposing or
Complementary?

Popular opinion has it that
creativity is about letting your
imagination run wild, without
any rules and restrictions; that
boundaries are non-existent in a
creative mind. What isn’t discussed
as often is how a person needs
to work in a disciplined way to
become proficient at creative
thinking! Confused? Does this
sound contrary?
Discipline is often misunderstood. It
doesn’t have to be about imposing
rules and boundaries on a child.
Rather, discipline is about building
structures and frameworks that help
you progress, whether it’s in your
work or in an artistic endeavour.
How can a person claim to be a good
writer, if she doesn’t know and
follow the rules of grammar? How
can someone be an artist without
learning the proper paintbrush
techniques? The rules have to
be understood first, and then
mastered. From mastery comes the
confidence to know which rules can
be bent. Some of the most creative
people in the world – think worldclass writers – have always spoken
about the need for disciplined
work-hours, every single day. It is
creativity on demand that keeps

the world’s leading ad-makers
on their toes. Leading classical
Indian musicians talk about
practising for several hours every
day. These artists demonstrate
that creativity and discipline can
exist hand-in hand.
At ParentEdge, we realised that
these are common quandaries
that parents face every day – how
do we encourage creativity in our
children and yet ensure that they
remain disciplined? Should the
creative child be bound by rules?
How do we know whether we
are interfering too much in our
child’s creative development? So
we took these questions to some
important people – people whose
opinions matter – teachers,
professionals in a creative field
and parents just like you. Read
on to find out what they think.

“If I don’t practise for one
day, I know it; if I don’t
practise for two days, the
critics know it; if I don’t
practise for three days,
the audience knows it.”
- Ignacy Paderewski,
Polish pianist and composer

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75

Getting the

Most

Out of a

PTM
Image Courtesy: Poorna School, Bangalore

Before the PTM
•

•

Have a talk with your child to discover
whether she has any areas of concern
that you need to discuss with her
teachers; these could be academicrelated, peer-related or even some
issues that she has with certain
teachers. However, when noting down
areas of concern, choose wisely – not
everything that your child mentions is
a potential problem, or worth bringing
up with a teacher.
P repare a list of questions that you
want to ask the teachers. Remember

that you will be given only a limited
amount of time – maybe 15 minutes,
maybe more – so you should prioritise
what you want to address. Thinking
through what you want to ask them
will also allow you to cover maximum
ground in the little amount of time you
have. Do ensure that you cover diverse
areas – academic, personality, social
skills, etc.
•

I f you have notes from a previous PTM,
refer to these while making your list
so you can check on improvements and
progress made.

•

T hrough the school term, maintain
a record of activities or lessons that
your child enjoyed or learnt a lot from;
mentioning this to the teachers will
not only make them feel appreciated,
but also give them a better insight
into what kind of learner your child
is. Similarly, note down patterns of
behaviour or complaints the child
has. Jotting these down through the
term will help you avoid the ‘recency
effect’ (where one tends to focus on
the most recent problems, which may
be temporary and not long-term, and
forget longer standing issues).

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Calling Schools!
Let us give parents ‘The Edge’ together!
At ParentEdge, we are passionate about wholistic enrichment of the child and close
engagement with parents. So let us join hands and run a ‘<Your School Name>
ParentEdge Club’ for parents.
Intrigued? Here are the details:
ParentEdge will create a calendar and take complete ownership of running the following
as part of the activities of the club:
On-the-ground
Expert talks
Parenting workshops
Events involving the parent and child
Parents’ carnival
ParentEdge magazine subscription

Benefits to your school
Building relationships with parents with minimal bandwidth from your end
A forum to educate parents on their role in ensuring that their child is “successful”
Brand building/nurturing

Do write to us at info@parentedge.in and let us discuss how to take this forward.